Mobile Monday

More games, more diversity! This week's edition of Mobile Monday has you chasing UFOs, competing in popularity contests, and listening to bad poetry from pigs wearing armor. We dare you to claim you're bored!

The Manhole: Masterpiece Edition - Another release from Myst creator Cyan Worlds, The Manhole was first released back in 1988 on a set of floppy disks as a point and click adventure game for kids. Now, a quick iPhone download and anyone can enjoy the remade adventure game, complete with quirky voice acting and plenty of things to experience. Just like Myst, tap on things you want to interact with, and move from screen to screen by tapping passageways. Interestingly, The Manhole has no ending. The object is to simply walk around and explore, and you'll have an amazing time doing just that!

Go Native! - A quiz game that's not about being right, it's about being popular! Played online with random people, Go Native! puts you in a race to meet Princess Mango. She only meets with the best of the best, so in order to be a winner, you need to choose the most popular answer for each round. Expect questions like "Which is most fun to watch someone playing: air guitar, air harmonica, air drums, air tambourine?" and "My favorite kind of bubbles are: thought bubbles, popped bubbles, economic bubbles, soap bubbles". The answers aren't always what you think, so making it to the end is sometimes as much luck as it is skill, but it's a great, unusual kind of quiz game that's fun to play now and again.

UFO on Tape - This one wins points for being a crazy idea. UFO on Tape is a very simple game of reflexes. You're driving along when suddenly your pals spot a UFO in the distance. Naturally you whip out the camera and get it on tape, but between the vibrating car and the bumpy road, you're having a tough time getting a still picture. Move the iPhone and try to keep the UFO on camera as long as you can. Great practice for when this happens to you in real life!

NOTE: Games listed may not be available outside of North America. Prices are subject to change and are therefore unlisted. Please see the individual game pages for purchasing info.

Winter Voices: Avalanche

Winter Voices: Avalanche is a quiet, slow-paced, and very different kind of tactical role playing game. You play a young girl living in a snowy village whose father has just passed away. Dealing with the emotions that follow is difficult, and the mysteries surrounding her father's past makes it even more challenging. Avalanche is the first in a series of episodes telling the story of Winter Voices, and if you're looking for a game that's heavy on emotion, character, and storytelling, this one won't disappoint.

The game begins as many role playing games do: choosing your character, including picking a portrait, profession, and adjusting your stats. You won't find the usual "strength, intelligence, wisdom, etc." in Winter Voices, though. Instead, traits such as Memory, Will Power, and Perspicacity are available, each representing a portion of the main character's emotional makeup while simultaneously serving as the mathematical basis for the role playing part of the game.

Winter Voices is very text-heavy, and you'll spend plenty of time walking back and forth talking to people and navigating conversation trees one choice at a time. The dialogue options available to you are based on different attitudes a grieving person might adopt at a time like this one, ranging from mournful to angry, teary-eyed and even sarcastic. You gain experience from talking to people, so even if you, yourself, aren't feeling chatty, you'll find a reason to begin conversations.

Perhaps the most interesting part of Winter Voices is the combat system. Most games give you a weapon to hit things with. In Winter Voices, though, your only weapons are "spells", and even those spells aren't spells in the conventional sense. Each time you enter a battle, you're facing off against your own inner emotions. Enemies are representations of different feelings or nagging thoughts inside your head (Shadow of Doubt, Insistent Memory, etc.), and doing battle with them is a symbolic way to move forward. You'll use skills like Betrayal, which causes you to deny your own personality in favor of a better one, thus preventing far away enemies from damaging you, or Courage, which increases your energy points for a few turns. The spell list goes on and on, as evidenced by a portion of the snowflake-shaped skill tree pictured below. All of this fits perfectly with the game's somber storyline, and it's the perfect way to tie in gameplay with plot.

Analysis: Winter Voices: Avalanche is a very unusual experience, and Beyond the Pillars is bravely trying something different with an established genre. The team was obviously going for story and atmosphere over gameplay, and the sense of lethargy that pervades the game is sometimes overbearing to the point that you feel a bit down yourself. Mix that in with slow battles, a grieving main character, and emotional reminders in every screen, and you've got a game you really can't take lightly.

The game's music and visuals are beautiful, there's no other way to describe them. Everything feels calm and cold. Not a peaceful and happy calm and cold, but an anticipatory sort of feeling where mystery is abound. The atmosphere is expertly set to suit both the gameplay and the story, and you'll find the writing is equally poetic and mysterious.

Even though Winter Voices provides a great interactive experience, it's not quite perfect. You'll find the combat is painfully sluggish at times, and waiting for enemy animations to complete is a bit boring. In fact, the whole of the game seems to move a little slow, something that fits well with the story, but when you're out and about exploring the countryside, you don't want to wait 30 seconds while your character walks across the screen. The writing, while vivid and poetic in nature, can border on pretentious at times, but I never felt it was too over the top.

Winter Voices: Avalanche provides a unique role playing experience with a great presentation and storytelling that will really engage you. The gameplay shortcomings will hopefully be tended to in future episodes, but as it stands, Avalanche is a great experience for the right kind of player. It's not a cheery game, so if a bit of moody storytelling is what you're looking for, Winter Voices will do the trick.

Windows:

Order the full version

Mac OS X:

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Time Mysteries: Inheritance

Windows:

Download the demo

Order the full version

Mac OS X:

Download the demo

Order the full version

Campfire Legends: The Babysitter

Ready for a creepy new adventure game? Then maybe you should point-and-click the lights out (ba-dum-tsh!) and give this a try. Campfire Legends: The Babysitter, a point-and-click horror adventure, is a new spin on the classic urban legend every teenage girl has probably heard at least once. Looking to pick up a bit of extra cash, as well as a recommendation from her Dean for medical school, Lisa agrees to babysit his twin daughters one night. Naturally the Laws of Scary Stories dictate this particular family must live in a suitably spooky old house frequently backlit by lightning flashes, but Lisa isn't afraid. Probably thinks her enormous purple plastic bracelets and high-tech portable cassette player will protect her. Ah, the 80's!

The twins don't seem to want her around. At least, Libby doesn't, whose rare skin condition has left her sullen and unfriendly. When strange things happening, Lisa starts to get impatient with the girls... even though Maggie insists everything is the work of Libby's imaginary friend, Nate, who lives in the closet. Kids today, amirite? As Lisa, you'll explore the old house, tracking down objects needed to complete puzzles, and doing important babysitter duties, like making hot chocolate for the twins, assuming the deep, angry male voice on the phone ordering you out of the house is a six-year-old girl playing a prank, and not informing the lady of the house about the figure you saw in the upstairs window before she leaves. Atta girl, Lisa. It's always important to provide a good role model for young girls who might someday want to be knocked unconscious by a madman.

Unlike most hidden-object games, the only items you'll ever be required to look for are items you actually need. The game will tell you what items you need for a specific task, and you'll have to track them down.The hint system comes in the form of fireflies that can be found scattered everywhere; each one is worth one hint, and since you need three of them to skip a puzzle, you'll want to keep your eyes peeled for them. (Up to five can be carried.) Their location in each room is random, so don't assume that just because one isn't in the last place you saw it doesn't mean it's missing.

Analysis: Having been an enormous fan of The Hookman, the first game in the Campfire Legends series, I can't tell you how happy I was to discover that not only was the series being continued, it was being held to the same high standards. The game is visually impressive and generally very well acted, if it tends to rely a bit too much on excessively dramatic music. Playing The Babysitter is a lot like playing a 1980's B horror movie, minus a montage of the heroine trying on silly hats. It's fun, it's campy, and even scary. Of course, the potential problem with that is that there are quite a lot of jump scares in this game, particularly towards the end, so you might want to think twice about playing this one if you hate things being thrown at your face while the music goes REEEEEEE!

The Babysitter doesn't just take a few steps to the left of its source material; it catches a plane to another part of the country and puts on a goofy disguise. The original story is probably a lot scarier, with its simple premise and ambiguity, but the game's plot is a lot more complex, and thus a lot more interesting. Things get weird very quickly, and finding out just what is going on is a great incentive to keep at it. Of course, the question remains whether you can forgive being forced to play a character who does all the stupid things you yell at people not to do in a movie. Don't go down the stairs, don't go down the stairs... "I think I'll go down the stairs!" YOU FOOL!

It's just unfortunate, then, that the latter half of the game winds up dragging its feet due to some tedious item collecting. You spend far too much time scouring the environment for tiny items, and more often than not, as soon as you finish with that one list, you're presented with another. Since items can be very small and very carefully hidden in dark areas, chances are you will wind up using hints. This wouldn't be that big of a deal, except the hint system isn't very helpful in tracking down those little items unless there's one in the room. Click on a firefly, and unless there's an object you need in your immediate vicinity, you'll probably waste a hint because the game will just vaguely point you towards another room, or just tell you that you should solve the puzzle.

While it lacks the tight gameplay design of its predecessor, The Hookman, Campfire Legends: The Babysitter, is still a beautifully made and highly enjoyable title that is well worth your time if you're looking for something fun and even a little scary as everyone's favourite BOOGA BOOGA holiday approaches. Which leaves us with only one thing left to say... THIS REVIEW IS COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE!

Windows:

Download the demo

Order the full version

Mac OS X:

Not available.
Try Boot Camp or Parallels or CrossOver Games.

Still Life

Everybody says you shouldn't let your past control you, but what if you don't have a choice? In present-day Chicago, Victoria "Vic" McPherson is an FBI agent on the trail of a serial killer who has been growing more and more violent with each discovered victim. In 1920's Prague, her grandfather, Gustav, is a P.I. investigating the death and disappearances of a growing number of prostitutes. When she finds her grandfather's journal in the attic, Vic begins to notice some disturbing similarities between the case she's working now, and the string of murders her grandfather was working on nearly eighty years ago. But any similarities must be coincidence, or else the work of a copy-cat. After all, there's no possible way the killer could still be around all these decades later... is there? Still Life is a murder mystery in the form of an adventure game that, for all its ups and downs, is a lot of fun to play and has a great story at its core.

You play with the mouse, clicking to interact when the cursor changes, and clicking on the ground to move there. (You can actually double-click to run, although the boost of speed you get from it is negligible.) During conversation you can press the [spacebar] to skip through a block of text, or the left and right mouse buttons to ask questions. Right-clicking or pressing [ESC] will open the menu where you can use and view your inventory, journal, or save and load your game almost any time you want. Since you're rarely given specific directions, it's important to listen to what the characters tell you, or look around your environment for clues.

Be warned that since this game was made in olden times you cannot skip puzzles, and at least one lockpicking minigame may drive you absolutely insane, even with a guide. Ah, 2005. When puzzles were overcomplicated and gamers wept. In fact, while most of the puzzle-solving in Still Life revolves around standard adventure game use-this-item-here shenanigans, there are still quite a few surprisingly difficult ones.

As both Vic and her grandfather Gus, you'll explore two different locations and two different time periods. The gameplay shifts between them in chapters. Playing as Vic, you'll use high-tech forensic equipment to gather and analyze evidence, or chase down suspects in a 4x4. When Vic stops to read her grandfather's journal when she has the time, the perspective shifts to Gustav, who may have to resort to more "old fashioned" methods of investigation, but has a rather unusual ability that may come in handy as well. While technically the sequel to a game called Post Mortem that focuses on one of Gustav's earlier cases, the game is an independent story that doesn't need any background to be enjoyed.

This weekend only, get a 30-50% discount when you buy Still Life!

Analysis: One thing you can never accuse Still Life of is rushing anything. Even when you wish they would, in fact, since you'll do a lot of moving slowly from place to place talking to people at great length. Fortunately, when the story does start rolling along, what emerges is actually a really good mystery story with a lot of tension and genuinely creepy moments. Of course, you should probably suspect some cheesiness too, and plot points aren't always handled as smoothly as you might hope. The story also seems to assume you're reading Vic and Gustav's notes as they get updated; there's a lot of background information in there on various people that gives some much-needed perspective and insight into the relationships they share with the protagonists.

The thing is, the gameplay is far from bad, but most of the time you're lead around by the nose. If you can't figure out a puzzle, you just can't proceed until you do. There's no way to really mess anything up since you don't have any choice, and it's disappointing that your sole interaction in conversation is simply to click the mouse and prompt the next line of dialogue. If you can't choose what you say, why even bother involving us at all? And this might seem a small nitpick, but why does everyone in Prague speak flawless English with no accent at all? People with the least Anglo-American names you can come up with start commenting on Gus's non-existent American accent, and one woman speaks flawless French at one point for no reason despite never having only spoken English prior.

The tone kind of strikes an odd balance between an episode of whatever your favourite cop television drama is, and a vaguely Broken Sword-ish sense of humour. Actually, it's a bit like what you'd get if you kidnapped Dan Brown and forced him to write an episode of NCIS. Vic makes a great protagonist, despite a tendency to crack some legendarily corny jokes at inappropriate times. It's great to see a female lead that's well rounded instead of leaning towards either extreme; soft and shy, or unpleasantly sarcastic and aggressive. Plus, how can you not like an FBI agent who owns a pair of bunny slippers when she's not kicking in doors or chasing bad guys on rooftops?

One of the best things I can say about Still Life is that the more I played it, the more engrossed I became, until I was genuinely sorry to see it end. Despite some issues with pacing, some cheesy moments, and relatively unoriginal gameplay, it's bolstered by a wonderful cast, absolutely gorgeous environments, a satisfyingly creepy mystery, and top notch production values for its time. Sadly, there's not really any replay value to be had; after all, once you've uncovered a mystery, what's the point in following the same trail of clues to the same ending again? But while it lasts, Still Life is definitely worth a look for fans of old-school-ish adventure gaming with a taste for a good story.

Windows:

Order the full version

Mac OS X:

Not available.
Try Boot Camp or Parallels or CrossOver Games.

Weekend Download

What's the most entertaining household object you can think of? Did you say "wooden crate"? Or, perhaps, "magnet"? "Broom"? You probably did, and since you did, you are rewarded with games that use said entertaining objects to provide even more entertainment in a digital, computerized form.

Super Crate Box (Windows, 20MB, free) - Remember the days of standing in sticky-floored arcades pumping quarters into a machine that would allow you to keep playing a game so you could enter your initials on the high score board? Super Crate Box aims to recreate that feeling (the high score bit, not the sticky floors) with its own brand of high-action 2D arena... action! Your goal is to pick up enough crates to continue to the next level. Each crate gives you a different weapon, a weapon you need to use to keep the constantly-spawning enemies at bay. It's a simple mechanic that's masterfully done, as you can't hold on to better weapons because you need more crates to continue. Play it once, die, play it again, live a little longer, then keep doing it because it's so darn fun.

Magnesian (Windows, 350MB, free) - A heavy-hitting release from PineApple Fish Studios, Magnesian plays on the wiliest of the non-contact forces, magnetism! (Take THAT, gravity!) A 2D physics puzzle platform game with a 3D look, you are equipped with a gun that can fire both positive and negative beams of magnetic energy as well as a "switch" weapon that can reverse polarity of objects around you. Using the forces of repelling and attracting, work your way through some daunting puzzles that require both serious thinking and some quick reflexes. It's a rather quiet game on the surface, with very little to distract you from the pushing, pulling, and arrangement of magnetically-charged objects, but once you dig into the handful of levels, you'll appreciate being left alone to focus on the gameplay. You'll also appreciate box surfing. Seriously, why can't we do that in real life?!

Dustforce! (Windows, 29MB, demo) - A demo for a work-in-progress game by Hitbox Team that shows a ton of promise. Dustforce is a puzzle platformer that places strong emphasis on smooth, flowing acrobatics. Your broom-toting character sweeps up litter as he/she runs by. You can jump, dash, double jump, wall run, wall dash, and everything in-between, giving you a surprising amount of freedom and agility as you navigate the game's crowded levels. Sweeping things gives you points, but some blocks vanish after being swept, while still others give you a bonus jump. The controls take some time to get used to, but once you're in the groove, the game flows smoothly and you can pull off some great stunts. A very fluid game that will hopefully see a successful full release soon!

Mega Man 8-bit Deathmatch (Windows, 55MB, free) - Exactly as the name implies, MM8BD takes classic Mega Man characters, levels and music, places them all in an arena, and lets you duke it out in style. What the name doesn't imply is that the game is in 3D, very much like the early first person shooters out there. Gather weapons as icons on each stage, and pick up energy and weapon capsules to keep everything charged up. Then, well, shoot everything that you can see! Classic death match action, with plenty of nostalgic 8-bit visuals and music. Multiplayer and single player modes are both available.

Note: All games have been confirmed to run under Windows 7 and are virus-free. Mac users should try Boot Camp, Parallels, or CrossOver Games to play Windows titles, Linux users can use Wine. If you know of a great game we should feature, use the Submit link above to send it in!

Mystery Legends: The Phantom of the Opera

What would you do for the person you loved? What if you found out they didn't love you back? As the saying goes, there's a fine line between love and hate. Mystery Legends: The Phantom of the Opera is a hidden-object adventure that is a grim, creepy, adaptation of the classic story, and is an absolute blast. With top-notch production values and a heavy emphasis on story, this is the game every other title in the genre wishes it could be.

Christine was once a celebrated opera diva, but she hasn't performed in years. Her daughter Evelina is fascinated by her mother's stories of the stage... but she doesn't suspect that the past doesn't always stay in the past. When Evelina receives a letter from a stranger, she awakens to find herself in the crumbling remains of the very same Parisian Opera House from her mother's early career. How did she get there? Who is the mysterious voice that hisses at her from the shadows? And why does he seem so convinced that she betrayed him?

As Evelina, you'll search through the Opera House, looking for clues and trying to find a way out. In most cases, points of interest will sparkle to grab your attention, and the cursor will change if you move it over something that can be interacted with. Like most hidden-object titles, you'll search through scenes for items you need to solve puzzles. Move your cursor over an item on your list to see what the silhouette looks like, or click on the hint mirror when it's fully charged to reveal a random object. If you can't progress, try going back to places you've already visited; sometimes getting a new objective will unlock new hidden-object scenes, or draw your attention to a specific item that could now be of use. Although the puzzles do offer you the ability to skip them if you wait long enough, Evelina's journal keeps track of valuable clues you might be able to use to solve them.

Analysis: While we tend to see a lot of games with horror themes, most casual releases seem to shy away from making them serious about it. They try to lighten things up with corny dialogue or other humour. But while it's not what you would call outright scary, Phantom of the Opera takes the whole experience seriously, and sets out to engross you in the story and raise the hairs on the back of your neck. At its core, this is a story about what happens when love turns into obsession, and the desire to posses something no matter who you destroy in the process. The narrative is revealed in the notes Evelina finds laying around, and the flashbacks that are presented when the Phantom appears.

Phantom of the Opera is no slouch in its presentation, either. The environments are incredibly well designed, the art work is absolutely gorgeous, moody and full of dark, bruised purples and frosty blues that help complete the atmosphere. As you play, the Phantom rages at you unseen, alternately cursing you and insisting he can force you to love him. Not only is it unsettling, but combined with Evelina's comments as she explores, it makes the whole place feel much more alive and involving by keeping the protagonist and antagonist from becoming faceless, mute entities. The Opera House itself is a great setting, so fallen into decay that it almost seems like another world.

One of the only real downsides to the game is that you'll be doing a lot of footwork. The Opera House and the surrounding area is big, and while the map the game provides probably won't be necessary to find your way around, it can still be frustrating to slog your way back and forth just to use one item, or to resort to poking your head in all the rooms to see if anything's changed. The rest of the game is also so moody that the cluttering of random, unrelated items in the hidden-objects scene, while admittedly a staple of the genre, feels out of place. Aiiieeeee, the Phantom! I must search this graveyard for a hamster, a bulldog, and a parasol, post-haste!

Fortunately, on a technical scale the hidden-object scenes are generally quite well done, and aren't just challenging because the hint button takes so long to recharge. Some of the objects are a bit more obscure than what you might be used to, ranging from specific Egyptian deities to uncommon plants to pieces of musical instruments... and prepared Absinthe. (Trust me, all the sugar in the world won't fix that stuff.) The puzzles you'll encounter are likewise solid, requiring you to both fire up the old gray matter as well as be observant. It's always nice when a game treats you like you're capable of knowing more than which way to put your pants on in the morning.

Visually stunning and engrossing, Mystery Legends: Phantom of the Opera, is one of the best games I've played in a long time, regardless of genre. The ending is a little unsatisfying considering all the build up, and definitely leaves the doors wide open for a sequel. For most players, the game will probably clock in at around four to five hours, more if you take your time; it's a respectable length, but you'll probably wind up wishing there was more to it, if only because it's so well done. At the very least you should check out the demo. You'll be glad you did.

Currently, only the Collector's Edition of Mystery Legends: The Phantom of the Opera is available. It includes a built-in strategy guide, a soundtrack, a bonus chapter, and a digital version of the original Phantom of the Opera book. The standard edition will be available in a few weeks.

Windows:

Download the demo

Order the full version

Mac OS X:

Download the demo

Order the full version

The Island: Castaway

The Island: Castaway is a new sim-meets-RPG game from Awem Studio, creator of the hidden object game Golden Trails: The New Western Rush. The game combines a Virtual Villagers kind of atmosphere with gameplay reminiscent of Wandering Willows, putting you in the role of a castaway on a lonely tropical island. Gather tons of items you'll use to hunt, fish, build, cook and more, all while fulfilling the needs of your friends and uncovering mystery after mystery on the fog-shrouded land.

You only control one character in The Island: a poor chap named Tom who spends his time running back and forth fulfilling the requests of everyone else on the island. The game progresses through a series of small missions that start off very simple and gradually become more involved. Using just the mouse, click on items to pick them up and store them in your massive inventory. When someone needs something from you, he or she will light up with an exclamation mark over their head. Simply click and your new task will be added to the checklist at the bottom of the screen.

At first, missions are straightforward and must be completed one after another. Soon, though, you'll have more objectives than you can complete, allowing a bit of wiggle room as to which order you complete them. You can push the story along, or you can run around picking up twigs and making fruit salad all day, it's up to you!

Speaking of fruit salad, The Island: Castaway is packed with diversions that play a strong role in the game. Recipes are one facet of this, allowing you to use fruits and meats to create meals that restore large chunks of your health. As you jog around doing your thing, your health gradually decreases, so it's always nice keeping a few meals stashed in your inventory. New recipes are gained through side missions, and they come in handy in a pinch. You'll also learn to fish, hunt, chop trees, plant things and more, all unveiled via new tools as the game progresses.

Analysis: While the visual set-up may remind you of most simulation games on the market, don't let the looks fool you. The Island: Castaway is far from your usual village sim, as it focuses on mini-missions and expanding gameplay as opposed to building a collective, central town. Unlocking trophies is also a big part of the game, and there are 15 to find in all, each with bronze, silver and gold levels.

The story plays a large role in The Island, and while it's not the most original piece of writing this side of To Kill a Mockingbird, you'll feel drawn in by the ever-expanding level of intrigue introduced by island natives, strange languages drawn in the sand, and statues hidden in bushes. Exploration and discovery are strong parts of this game, and you'll always feel like there's something new waiting around the corner.

Awem went to great lengths to make the interface friendly, and everything responds to your needs without a hitch. Feeding Tom to keep him healthy is easy, working with recipes and your other tools is simple, and the mini-map (along with the task list) makes it easy to see where characters are located and who wants your attention at the moment. Unfortunately, you can't manually scroll the screen, which is a bit of a letdown, but after a few minutes you won't really mind.

If The Island: Castaway has any faults, it's with the voice acting. The first lines you'll hear spoken will probably make you shudder. Later, the readings improve, but you still get the impression the actors were only allowed one take for the script, so everything sounds stilted and contrived. Casual gamers don't expect perfection from voice acting in our games, but sometimes it's just better to leave it out.

The Island: Castaway will absolutely steal your afternoon away. The combination of quick missions, exploration, discovery, and a seemingly endless supply of items to find, makes you constantly curious as to what awaits you around each corner. Play it casually, but be prepared to sink a lot of time into this excellent game!

Windows:

Download the demo

Order the full version

Mac OS X:

Not available.
Try Boot Camp or Parallels or CrossOver Games.

FireBoy and WaterGirl 2: The Light Temple

Everybody knows that fire and water don't mix. But sometimes they can work together, grabbing gems, flipping switches, pushing blocks, and adjusting mirrors. When does this happen, you say? Why, in Oslo Albet's follow up to last year's FireBoy and WaterGirl, of course. Now his cute, anthropomorphic elementals leave the Forest Temple and take their incessant diamond collecting to the fabled Light Temple. Here they discover new challenges across 40 new stages of brain-bending, keyboard-taxing action.

Like its predecessor, FireBoy and WaterGirl 2: The Light Temple is a platformer that has you controlling not one, but two characters at once. Both FireBoy and WaterGirl have their own controls (the [arrow] and [WAD] keys on the keyboard) and can be moved independently of each other. Your goal is to use both characters to grab as many gems as possible while leading them to their respective exits. In your way are various traps and switches, as well as pits filled with fire, water, and well, deadly black stuff. FireBoy and WaterGirl can walk in pits made of their own elements, but will vaporize if they touch their opposite element or fall into a black pit. As before, stages include a series of time-based runs, an assortment of levels designed for simultaneous character movement, and more crafty and devious stages requiring the duo to grab a single diamond before exiting.

Most levels involve some elements of teamwork between FireBoy and WaterGirl. Usually one character has to stand on a pressure-sensitive button that raises a wall to allow the other character to pass. Other levels require both characters to push a heavy block, or operate a see-saw to reach higher areas. There are even a few tricky stages that require you to move both characters simultaneously, with FireBoy and WaterGirl jumping on the same platforms or running to areas that are otherwise inaccessible.

While much of this sounds familiar to Forest Temple fans, the Light Temple has a few new surprises for unsuspecting visitors. Some levels are pitch black, illuminated only by a glow around the main characters and nearby platforms. Other stages require careful manipulation of light beams to trigger photosensitive switches. There are even special movable blocks with mirrors on them that reflect the light 90 degrees. These mirror-blocks require precise placement to allow a light beam to reach its intended target.

Analysis: FireBoy and WaterGirl 2: The Light Temple is a tricky title, but it's also quite fun once you get the hang of it. The game's dual-character control is one of its most challenging aspects, but once you understand how it works, there's satisfaction in busting through a level with both characters blazing. I especially like the levels that were made for simultaneous two-character play, some of which have a mirrored design to help our addled brains cope with the game's unique challenge. If done right, beating one of these levels not just feels satisfying, but it might even look pretty impressive to someone watching over your shoulder. The mechanic aside, I'm impressed with the number of levels and their variety. The light-manipulation and darkness stages are some of the game's more entertaining ones, though also a bit trickier.

While the level design is clever, the game also has a few issues that make things a little difficult at times. Your characters are pushers, not pullers, so on levels requiring block and mirror movement, an accidental shove can wedge an unfortunate block against a wall or another block, forcing you to restart the level. It can also be a little maddening to go through a whole elaborate sequence of movements, switch hits and button pushes, only to find that you're trapped, or discover that a block you need to move is suddenly inaccessible. The keyboard controls themselves (which still only works for QWERTY layouts) also occasionally like to respond a little too late when you're trying to make critical jumps over deadly pits. Thankfully, most levels take between 30 seconds and 3 minutes, so even if a restart is necessary, it's not the end of the world. Usually the second or third time around, you can go through a sequence much faster, and before you know it, the level's complete.

While FireBoy and WaterGirl 2: The Light Temple has its share of challenges, ultimately the game's clever level design, fun control mechanic and effective use of two characters makes getting through the levels feel like an accomplishment. Fire and water may not mix, but you and this game might be a match if you are looking for a platformer puzzler with novelty and plenty of variety to satisfy.

Play FireBoy and WaterGirl 2: The Light Temple

Glorg

Glorg, Grapefrukt's new one button hack-n-slash RPG tribute, has some great hilariously misleading faux-box-art, and an interesting premise. Glorg is the story of a warrior whose unibrow is small but whose heart and courage are large. Glorg finds himself in a dark, deep dungeon. At first, Glorg is scared, for Glorg was surrounded by monsters, Glorg's least favorite thing. But then our hero sees that also surrounding him are treasure and weapons; Glorg's favorite things! Striking out with his mighty stick of bashing and shield of blocking, Glorg heads out to explore. Will Glorg ever see the light of the surface again? That's up to you! You control Glorg just by clicking the left mouse button. The green circle next to Glorg will tell you what will happen when you click; it's used to explore areas, loot treasure, walk, and, most importantly, fight.

Battle is real-time, so you'll need to pay attention to the prompts that appear on your green circle. Click when it says "Block" or you'll take damage. You can click fast to attack rapidly, or you can hold down the button to charge up a powerful attack, which has a chance of stunning an enemy if it hits. If you defeat your enemy, you'll not only earn EXP, but you'll also occasionally get treasure that you can use to purchase portals. Portals let you skip levels if you die, so you'll learn to love them fast. As you explore, you'll uncover new areas in the dungeon; you can't choose the direction Glorg moves when presented with multiple paths, unfortunately, but if he runs into a dead end he'll simply head back the way he came.

Analysis: Since the release of One Button Bob earlier this year, platform developers have tended towards increasing innovation with ultra-streamlined control schemes, but Glorg is the first time I've seen this kind of simplified structure applied to an RPG framework. Reducing any genre to minimalism is going to come off as perhaps overly artistic, but fortunately, Glorg, with its adorable aesthetic, humorous asides, and sense of dreaminess, is as entertaining as it is experimental.

Naturally, streamlining a genre can mean sacrificing quite a bit: in this case, story, customization, and any sense of non-linearity. And I don't mean it's "linear in the sense of "it only has one ending." I mean linear. Lin-E-Ar. Super-Linear. Ultra-Linear. The kind of linearity that would cause a straight line to say "Boy howdy, that's linear!". It turns out removing most aspects of the control scheme really limits player-freedom. If you've ever wondered whether Nethack could be reduced to a series of quick-time events, wonder no more.

Of course, ultra-linear quick-time-event-based games can be quite entertaining, if often repetitive (...I'm looking at you, Dragon's Lair), and by removing the illusion of choice, Glorg allows for a subtle parody of most RPG player behavior. For instance, at first I found it frustrating that Glorg always took the most circuitous path through the dungeon, never finding a staircase until he had explored all the rooms. Then I realized: when crawling through an RPG dungeon, and having barely explored it before finding the staircase to the next level, does any self-respecting gamer immediately take it? Of course not! The designer wouldn't have included the other rooms if they didn't contain some awesome loot! So every room ends up explored anyways. Likewise, I thought it a little strange that you had no say over what weapon Glorg used. Then I remembered that 95% of the time the only thing you ask about a found weapon in an RPG is "Is it stronger than the one I already have?", even if that means replacing your broadsword with a sharpened umbrella. Grapefrukt clearly understands the tropes and player behaviors of the RPG enough to poke fun by making them automatic.

Glorg is a unique experience. At first I was drawn in by its charming style and music. After playing a while, I thought it more than a little monotonous. Yet I kept coming back to it, using the check-points to get further and further, five minutes or so at a time. Glorg sometimes feels like a mini-game (if a high-quality one) expanded a little further than its mechanics could handle. Still, Glorg is an interesting twist on the RPG formula and quite worthy of your time.

Play Glorg

Link Dump Friday

Whether they're shedding on your carpet, peering at you distrustfully from beneath a warming rock, or vomiting on your shoe in the middle of the night so you don't discover it until you put your foot in it the following morning, there's no denying animals are rad. That's why it's a creature feature on this week's Link Dump Friday, which features all manner of animals, up to and including two birds, a fish, and two cats. Variety! Featuring avian dexterity, exploding marine life, lost kittens, and more, this week is dedicated to all the animal lovers out there.

• Temple Glider - Apparently, this bird's definition of "walk like an Egyptian" (waoooh, waooooh!) is different than ours. Press and hold the [arrow] keys in either direction to take off, and you'll gain height as long as you're flying that way. The goal is to make your way to the sarcophagus at the end of each stage, flying through glittery rings to increase your score, and not destroyed by any number of pitfalls that await. If it helps, you can pretend you're Star Fox.
  
• Squawk - Real parrots are absolutely terrifying, what with their beaks that can cut through bone and whatnot, but you'd be hard-pressed to be intimidated by the roly-poly bird in this little game of avoidance and reflexes from Nitrome. Using the pegs that pop up around the screen, help your little ball of beak and feathers roll around the screen, staying away from obstacles and collecting coins. Gosh that's cute. Almost looks as though he wouldn't rather bite of your earlobe as soon as he would look at you, doesn't he?
  
• w00t Fish - The touching, Oprah's Book List story of some chat speak, a fish, and the pink goo he wants to bathe in. Although he looks rather rubbery, the fish himself is actually fairly explosive, and bumping him against any surface results in disaster. The goal is to carefully use his rockets to propel him into the pit of pink stuff. Requiring a light touch and a lot of patience, it's an exceptionally good looking little avoider, but potentially a very frustrating one.
  
• Stray Cat - Minoto has a history of making weird, silly, and even downright baffling games, but this one tackles a very important issue; lost kittens, which is always serious business. It also involves a devil under a rain cloud, a suspicious individual, and a... uh... mole (I think) in a hard hat. Which is actually one of the most sensible things to come out of a Minoto title. Featuring the trademark charm and obscure (read: barely there) logic we all know and love, it's another short, abstract puzzle apparently designed solely to bring a grin to your face.
  
• Yura&Myu Escape 1 - Continuing our all-of-a-sudden tradition of offering escape games whenever possible with your Link Dump Friday brew, we bring you this short little gem about a pink cat who's been locked in a room because... uh... well, I don't honestly know. Although it's not translated into English, you don't actually need to read anything to be able to complete it. We're just going to go ahead and assume that the cat is actually a super secret spy cat, and was locked inside by his arch nemesis Colonel Fluffbottom. (Pink Cat to be voiced by Sean Connery, Colonel Fluffbottom to be played by Steve Buscemi.)
  

Corporate Climber

It's a dog-eat-dog world out there, kid! The corporate world takes no prisoners and even you won't escape in Corporate Climber, a new platformer from PixelJAM and Adult Swim. You begin as a lowly poop-shoveler and eventually work your way up to becoming CEO of your company... meaning you're shoveling an entirely different kind of poop but making more money while doing it.

Move around with the [arrow] keys, press [X] to jump and press [Down + X] to hop down through platforms. This is a frustration platformer, so one hit will kill you and there's plenty of stuff out to do just that. The object of each floor is to get to the elevator on the opposite side of the screen, though sometimes you'll have to fulfill special conditions like firing employees to open the door.

This game features a unique layout where you climb up your company's office building floor by floor. As a result you can see the next level you'll be facing, plus certain levels will include dangers coming at you from lower floors. Even being able to see what's coming isn't much help, though; prepare to die quite a bit as you try to reach the top.

A word of warning: there's a bit of objectionable content near the end of the game, but it's nothing you wouldn't expect to see on Adult Swim. This also isn't a very long game; you can expect to be done in about fifteen to twenty minutes on your first time through. All in all, though, Corporate Climber is a solid game for anyone who enjoys frustration platformers, and the online leaderboards definitely give you incentive to keep improving your time and score.

Play Corporate Climber

In3structoTank!

Hey there, Tanky boy, flyin' in the sky so fancy free... If you're been sitting there, thinking to yourself, "This day isn't explodey enough. It could be explodier." then you might want to pay attention because this is serious business. In3structoTank! is bringing you a whole lot of arcade action as you fight to save the world from the Evil General and his legions of deadly, determined, and (might we add) highly explosive baddies. You didn't really think this one through, did you, Mister Evil General?

You (as Dirk Danger) pilot an indestructible tank. You might think that means you automatically win the game, but since the tank has no weapons of its own, you have to get creative if you want to fight back against the hordes of determined enemies. Move the tank with the [arrow] keys and steer it into enemies or bombs; explosions hurl your tank into the air, where you can guide it into enemies to make them blow up. For each enemy you destroy as you bounce through the air, your combo increases, and when you hit the ground, you'll gain EXP based on how many enemies you destroyed.

Leveling up usually causes the enemies to appear even faster, which is fairly important. Since you can't be destroyed, most levels will only end in failure if you don't complete an objective within a time limit, or if enemies succeed in theirs. Of course, even an indestructible tank needs fuel, and if that runs out, you'll blow up. And you thought gas prices were the worst thing you had to deal with! Fuel depletes slower when you make things explode, and refills completely when you level up. As you destroy enemies you fill up your BOOM bar, which can be activated when full by tapping [up] to trigger a small explosion to help you jump. You also have a nuke at your disposal, which you can activate with the [spacebar] when ready to clear the screen.

In3structoTank! isn't that different from its predecessors. Even the new leveling system and nuke don't make many changes to what is essentially the same game as before, just shinier and tweaked a bit. The standard action is still as fun and bouncy as you've come to expect, and the bosses you'll encounter in adventure mode add a welcome challenge that keeps the game from becoming too repetitive. (Yes, I just called repeated and multiple explosions "repetitive". I have officially become jaded.) While not exactly what you might call deep, In3structoTank! is fun, silly, and just what you need to relieve tension in a cruel world that doesn't actually allow you to blow people up. Life is so unfair.

Play In3structoTank!

You Are Games: Babylon Sticks Caption Contest

You can tell by the banner above that, after almost a year's hiatus, you are, once again, games! You Are Games is our way of inviting you to become a more active part of the Jay is Games community, join our little family, be a part of the team. Okay, given the nature of this edition, maybe "team" isn't as accurate as, say, "viciously competitive mob of chaos." But who cares? It'll be fun anyway.

We're offering up a caption contest, but you wouldn't expect us to do a caption contest like any other web site, would you? Of course you wouldn't. You can go anywhere to see adorable baby animals or politicians in uncomfortable situations. When you do a caption contest here at JIG, you're going to do it for an original comic drawn by our very own James Francis, creator of the excellent Babylon Sticks.

Simply submit your funny bone tickling, game related captions to this Halloween themed comic in the comments section below using a Casual Gameplay account (we'll contact the winner via the email address you have in it, so make sure it's up to date). You'll have until 11:59PM (GMT-5:00) on Monday the 25th to submit the best one-liners you can come up with, the more the merrier. And remember to keep your entries game related! We'll choose one winner to become the official caption for the finished Babylon Sticks comic next Thursday!

Just a few things to keep in mind before you stun us all with your comedic genius. Don't forget that this is a family friendly site, so please refrain from profanity and do your best to keep it clean. Also, the boys in legal tell me I have to inform you that:

• All entries submitted to this contest become the property of Casual Gameplay.
• You must be at least 13 years of age to enter.
• Void where prohibited.

Finally, we'll contact the winner via email once the final decision has been made. With all the boring fineprinty stuff out of the way, you can now turn on the funny switch and open the laugh sluices. Immortality awaits!

RADiancE

It's Snake! It's Breakout! It's a gleeful amalgam of both! It's RADiancE, a new classic-style arcade game from developer Miguel Angel Perez Martinez, and along with some color matching and clever soundtrack work, it's also more than the sum of its parts.

You control the snake, using the [arrow keys] to point it in the direction you want it to go. Like in classic Snake, the goal is to eat food pellets, which make you longer, while avoiding walls and your ever-growing body. Like in classic Breakout, there is also a ball, which you should use to clear each level of obtrusive colored blocks. The snaky body is used to bounce the ball into blocks, the catch being that the ball can only destroy blocks the same color as itself. When you eat a colored food pellet, you add a new segment of the same color to the snake, and the ball also changes color when it bounces off that segment. So color transfers from the pellet, to the snaky body segment, to the ball, to the correspondingly colored block which it destroys. Clear the playing field of blocks without crashing into yourself or other obstacles, and live to see another level.

Analysis: The synthesis of these two classic games works fairly well, and after a few trial runs it's pretty easy to get in the groove of knocking down colored blocks, using colored balls with the slithering paddle that is also a snake. There is, however, a high degree of randomness, which may or may not be to your liking. The colored pellets appear randomly, and only a few appear at a time before you eat some, so there isn't much you can do to control the color of the snake. It's also difficult to control what color the ball becomes, and you are much better off guiding the snake towards the ball and leaving its color to fate. There is still a certain amount of strategy in corralling balls toward blocks and in judging when to eat and when to stop eating.

There are a number of different power-ups, such as classic multi-ball, or the "Supercharged" snake which can destroy blocks directly; and while these power-ups add variety to the game, they also tend to add to its randomness. Among the block-destroying levels are also a number of geometric boss fights (Behold the dread fury of the Meta-Square!), and while they have little to do with the core mechanic, they also add a different twist, as you puzzle out how to destroy these Euclidean menaces with your limited repertoire of maneuvers.

I'm a big fan of the randomly generated soundtrack in RADiancE. The ball produces random pitches whenever it strikes a surface, and the music changes key every time a block is destroyed (actually, I think it changes mode, but that only matters if you're a music theory nerd like me). The music gets more intense, adding percussion and ambient harmony as you destroy more blocks. While it sounds a little abrupt in earlier levels with fewer blocks, it's very effective when there are many blocks to destroy and the music has a chance to build gradually. I imagine, though, that the code and resources needed to execute the music is what accounts for the unusually long loading time, so there is a price.

RADiancE is much more than a slapdash chimera of two different classic games. The colorful neon graphics and inventive use of music and sound make for a bold, flashy presentation. And while there is more than a little bit of randomness in the gameplay, there is also enough skill required to make it interesting to arcade fans. RADiancE goes beyond simply combining two games and expands the concept into something original.

Play RADiancE